Changing It Up in the Mat-Su Valley

Much has happened at our new house since my post on August 13th. We passed our inspection, got a great appraisal and signed our closing papers. That was so easy to write but in reality those were accomplished only because we had no life for a month.

This is my final post, so it’s only fitting that I end with some Top # Lists:

*Top 10 Things I Learned About Building Your Own House:

#1 – It takes twice as long as you think and cost a whole heck of a lot more too.

#3 – Amazon may be taking over the world but they sure carry a lot of house building items and for a much cheaper price.

#4 – Our Valley is full of fabulous sub-contractors who not only did a superb job but were really great people to work with.

#5 – You can do more than you think you can.

#6 – Your marriage doesn’t have to suffer. Amazingly enough we never had a fight during the whole project (a sure sign that miracles still happen!!).

#7 – It sounds like fun to pick out all your new items but you get overwhelmed and so tired of making decisions.

#8 – You can’t over-plan but you can over-think.

#9 – I never want to go to Lowe’s again.

#10 – A house is just a house. A home is where you live and do life with people you love.

Top 2 Things We Would Do Differently:

#1 – Crawl space under the house.

#2 – Not put in a square toilet in the guest bathroom. It’s gotta go.

Top 6 Things We Love About The House:

#1 – Location and View

#2 – Living Room Windows

#3 – Master Bedroom

#4 – Roof Deck

#5 – Kitchen

#6 – It’s 95% done!!

Before I do the next list, I must share this quote by architect Guy Peterson: “When you do something different, people are always going to ask the question why. Why is it not looking like the house across the street? I’ve always told my students, ‘I’d rather do a building that someone didn’t like than one they didn’t notice’ “.

Top 4 Questions People Ask Us:

#1 – Are you going to fill in the holes and paint your concrete walls? (nope)

#2 – Are you going to paint your concrete floor? (nope)

#3 – What’s the concrete wall for outside? (design feature only)

#4 – Are those your finished light fixtures? (that one was from our brother-in-law Jim and the answer is- yep)

So this is it. My last blog post. And while there are still closets to be built and shelves to be hung, if you want to see them you will have to stop by for a visit or invite yourself over. A huge thank you to all that helped us along this journey by lending a hand or dropping by – it meant the world. To those who read and wrote words of encouragement after a blog posting – thank you so much! And of course a huge shout-out to Jesse Lye – we couldn’t have even started this project without you bro.

Here are some final pictures – enjoy!

Welding the floating staircase.

Thanks Mason for burning these for us!

Yes, these will have a rail eventually.

Scott designed these cool light bars and mirror holders.

After trying 6 different colors of red for our outer doors, it turns out mustard was a much better fit.

Inside of front door.

Flowers on the table for the appraisal.

Our first moose visitor – during moose season no less and he was legal!

Friends and family looking for said moose later that night.

After 3 years of living in a tiny house, it is so wonderful to host big gatherings again – especially when it’s your Dad’s 86th BD party.

Oh, one more thing. Whenever we watch BBC home shows, all the houses have names the owners have given them. Our house? La Maison Vue (French for ‘The View House’). : )

I love quotes and I like to quote them. However, one quote that just won’t work for this blog post is the old saying that describes someone as a “Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.” Because in the case of my gifted husband, I feel the description should read, “Jack-of-all-trades, master of many.”

We closed on our house this week and I was anxious to write one final blog post and put an end to this chapter. But when I sat down to write it, I realized a post about Scottie just had to be written first. Note: this could get sappy, read at your own discretion. : )

Having a house built for you is a big enough deal. Doing it the way Scott did is down-right crazy. He was the:

*Architect

*General Contractor

*Engineer

*Electrician

*Plumbing Assistant

*Painter

*Welder

*Interior Designer

*Installer

*Finish Trimmer

*Lighting Designer

*A/V Technician

*…and all the things I forgot about since it’s all a big blur…

He did all those as he worked to keep his small business going, (and keep his wife from having a nervous breakdown haha).

And while that list is impressive, what blows me away is his attention to detail and craftsmanship on each and every one of those items. It’s not everyday you find someone that doesn’t just do things to get them done but does things WELL and with precision. A Master of Many.

So here’s to you babe. I’m so proud of you! Way to do the tough thing and go after your dream of building your own house. I’ve heard it said there’s something sexy about a man that builds you a house…what do you know…it’s true! I Love You – Marianne

Productive! That’s the word that best describes our last few weeks. We didn’t quite have our ‘to-do list’ complete before our company arrived (thanks Chris & Ashley for living without a bedroom door for 3 days!), but we came pretty darn close.

Here’s the latest happenings:

*Kitchen Island: Our kitchen is nearly complete with the addition of the island countertop/stovetop. The countertop is a piece of steel (shocker!) that took 4 guys to install since it weighed 480 pounds. I was a little skeptical about this choice but I really love both the look and practicality (hot pan out of the oven? no problem) of the steel. For maintenance we will just need to rub it with mineral oil periodically. The only things left in the kitchen are the cooktop vent, window trim, lighting and tile grout.

*Guest Bathroom: If there was one room that got very little planning, it was the guest bathroom. As a result, it’s a little on the small side and an interesting configuration. However, Scott did a great job making it all fit/work and it turned out pretty cool in the end. I discovered the granite countertop for this bathroom in a salvage yard and it intrigued me because the way it had broken made it look like a piece of live edge wood. Right away I knew the broken shape would work well in the tight bathroom.

*Master Bathroom: No more trips to the kitchen sink to wash my hands! Just this weekend Scott started on our vanity, and while there is much more to do, the countertop and sinks are functional. This is the first time in our married life that we have had double sinks in our bathroom. Someone told me that was the key to a happy marriage…we’ve been happy without them so I guess marital bliss here we come haha!

*Interior Doors: After months (no joke!) of research, Scott decided on commercial interior doors that have a metal frame and solid cherry doors (which we will someday stain). They were worth the effort and only doable because of his ability to send freight up here affordably.

Enjoy the pictures:

This was the guest bath at 6pm the night before our family arrived the next morning.

Midnight. Yes we pulled an all-nighter that night. 🙂

Doesn’t it look like a live edge? The bamboo sink was to keep a theme throughout the house…

Sneak peek at our windowsills. Look familiar?

Thanks for reading! We hope to close by September 10th so I am almost done with this blog – yippee!!!!

I am happy to say we have a new home address (and I can’t even began to tell you how right it feels!!). While our closing date is still 6-8 weeks away, and there is much more to be done, moving in early was definitely a good idea!

Kitchen Part 2 – We heard this quote on a recent home show we watched and I loved it, “Kitchens are about the space and the poetry of cooking. A social place. A place to enjoy the moment.” Because of that, we invested a little more in this room since by far it will be the most used space.

Countertop: We had every intention of picking out a quartz countertop when we went looking but the organic, varied and natural look of the granite countertop definitely worked better for us. The granite we chose is a dark brown with spots of silver and black. The owner calls this type ‘dark chocolate’ – works for me!

Appliances: Thermador is a German company that’s been making appliances since 1916. By purchasing all the kitchen appliances from them we got the microwave and the dishwasher for free – seemingly a good deal but really just a great sales gimmick that we joke about. 🙂

Backsplash: After looking at lots of options, we settled on 3 x 12 white subway tiles for the kitchen and both shower stalls. I have always loved the look of bricks and subway tiles are a modern version of those to me.

Here are some photos (actually it’s photo overload – sorry!):

We have hired the awesome Daniel Unfried for all the tile work.

Installing the faucet.

My favorite drawer! No wasted space under the sink.

The tiles still need to be grouted – it will be white.

If you are a fellow ‘British Baking Show’ watcher you will understand my excitement upon seeing the “Proof” setting on the oven.

The only item to make the wall so far – our art piece from Israel.

No TV yet so Scott brought over a work projector. Handy!

This is where our closet will eventually be.

My temporary vanity. I walk to the kitchen sink whenever I need water. For showers we are driving to our Palmer house (or using extra deodorant).

Our clothes are in the laundry room for now – later this will be used to hang-dry our clothes.

Just put these to use today for the first time – small but mighty.

I had two criteria for the toilets: 1 – powerful flush 2 – clean sides.

Scott is slowly trimming out the 88 electric boxes inside the house.

After much deliberation, we decided less is more – this is Scott’s version of a wall sconce.

Guess bathroom – notice the hole in the wall the plumbers had to make to fix our hot water problem.

Guest bathroom shower.

We’ve had a pair of owls entertain us 2 nights this week. Who needs TV when you can watch the ‘Short-eared Owl Show’.

Deadlines can often be a blessing. In 10 days we have a family of 6 coming to stay with us for a week. This is our list to accomplish in the next 9 days. Thankfully they are family but still I’m sure they would appreciate having bedroom doors and a shower.

OK, I do admit that I used kitchen in my title on purpose, because I’m pretty sure if I wrote ‘Sheetrock and Painting’, my Mom might not even read this. However since my last blog we really have worked mainly on the walls – the part of the house no one really notices yet make a huge impact on the look and feel.

Here’s what’s been happening the last five weeks:

Sheetrock: Due to the fact that Scott wanted ‘smooth’ walls (level 4), and there was only one experienced guy the company trusted to tape/mud those, the sheetrock process took almost two weeks. It was great timing though for us because our beautiful little granddaughter Luci arrived early and we were able to get away and meet her during that time!

Painting: Scott taped and painted the entire 2,200 sq. feet himself (I just cleaned and provided moral support). With all the beams, concrete walls and windows there was a lot more taping than usual. Not to mention, because the floors were done, we had to put ‘ram board’ down to protect them – another time consuming and expensive piece.

Color: The walls are all painted ‘Delicate White’ – a very popular color due to it’s crispness with warm undertones. Down the road we have some ideas for accents walls (i.e. making an artsy wood wall using all our wood scraps) but mostly we will just keep it white.

Outer doors: No more plywood doors you lock with a drill!! They have yet to be painted, and have the hardware installed, but we at long last have doors.

Garage Sink: We needed to bring water into the house, so using leftover steel, an unused rafter, and a clearance kitchen sink we were going to return, we made a very unconventional garage sink. It was so fun to do something more creative for once!

Kitchen Cabinets: The kitchen cabinets were installed eight hours after we finished painting (that was a close one!). They were built by Jon’s Woodworking, a local company right here in Palmer, that has an amazing reputation statewide. The personal aspect of going through a small business was so wonderful and we loved that he came to the house multiple times to double check measurements/design features. Jon drew up the original design, we asked for some changes, and by the 3rd edition it was a go. I will go into a little more detail on the cabinets during Kitchen part 2, but in case you are wondering, they are made out of bamboo.

Just re-reading what I wrote makes me tired. Without a doubt this last month has been exhausting in every way! The plan is to move in this week or next, (think glamour-camping), so that we are on-site and Scott can spend more time working and less time running between houses. Realistically we still have two busy months to be able to close with the bank but moving will give us a boost in our spirits for sure!

Enjoy the pictures:

First things first – Baby Luci!

This guy has been sheet rocking for 30 years – he was amazing!

So many messes to clean up…

Scott taping…

Scott painting…

Scott looking cool in his white suit…

Still trying to decide what color to paint the outer doors (the same out and in). Ideas welcome.

Welding the garage sink.

This was a fun project.

Bonus room doors. We are keeping the home office at our Palmer house so now we call this the bonus room.

It was a good ‘mistake’ because we love how open this room feels.

This came after pulling up floor board, sweeping twice, vacuuming and mopping three times.

Yes, this none housecleaner has mopped and washed windows for days…

They cleaned up nicely though.

Our first housewarming gift (from my gift-giving friend Brenda Sue).

Oven and microwave are installed. Silly me…I had to play with a few decorations of course.

Scott went to put the frig and freezer in place and somehow the opening measurement was off by less than 1/2 inch. No amount of pounding could make them fit.

So today he had to remodel what he just finished. Not a fun set-back but oh well.

We have a bed there now!

Mason just installed this wonderful paper holder in our outhouse. He took some of our siding scraps and made it. We now have a very snazzy outside throne but I am pleased to inform you that tomorrow my inside throne is being installed!!!

I’ve always loved the verse in the Bible that says that God can give us ‘beauty for ashes’ and I feel like I saw this illustrated when Alaska Concrete Polishing took our boring gravel concrete floor, and after much sanding, grinding and polishing, made a beautiful sea of glass. In fact, I had always assumed that is was the sealant on top of a concrete floor that added the shine but discovered instead, it’s the gauges of grit, going from 100 to 800, that bring the beauty out of everyday rocks (the sealant on top is nothing but the protective coating). There’s a parallel to our lives there that is just so darn true and I love it!

Here’s what’s been happening in the last 6 weeks:

We have WATER!: Wars have been fought over drinking water so it was with a little fear that we finally turned on our water after almost 11 months of the well being drilled. And the verdict? It’s clear, rust free, powerful, and delicious! That’s a big deal and we are beyond thankful.

Garage is finished: The garage has been sheetrocked, painted and the lighting installed. This needed to happen so we could move all the tools and equipment out of the house in order to sheetrock that portion.

Concrete floor is polished: The polishing of the concrete floor took longer than we expected, and to be honest, we learned a lot in the process. Being our first house build, we were unaware that since the large polishing machine can’t reach the edges of the floors, the rocks on the edges won’t be as pretty as the middle section. Thus when we went to look at the floors after they were buffed/complete, being ‘detail oriented people’ like we both are, we were a little disappointed with the edges. Looking back it would have been nice if our contractor would have mentioned this beforehand, but once we understood the process we came to grips with it and realized it fits with our modern/industrial mix; the middle looks modern and the edges look industrial. So overall we love the floors, cracks and all, since really…we’re all a little cracked.

Sheetrock in the house starts going up at 7am tomorrow and then comes paint. Soon it will really start looking like a house – so excited!!

Enjoy the pictures, they explain it better than I do:

Our orange, now clear, WATER!

Drywall…a very good project to leave to the professionals.

Scott spent hours taping off the garage so we could paint it.

I was his painting assistant (yes the suits got hot).

Scott is having fun designing his own lighting for the house. He doesn’t care for florescent lights, so he made these garage lights instead out of cheap construction light covers and unique LED bulbs.

When you live in Alaska you need a lot of outdoor lighting!

It was always in our minds to add a ‘coffee station’, and finally got around to it. Cuppa’ joe anyone?

I had visions of cement dust flying everywhere when they grinded the floor. Thankfully it was hooked up to a huge vacuum system instead.

After the first grind with 100 grit.

The varying grit disc they use to polish.

This was after 200 grit.

They had to mop between every level. This is how we will clean the floor, with an old fashioned mop and straight water.

After 800 grit.

After the top sealant.

Some of the edge blemishes that I mentioned.

Some cracks were big enough they had to be filled so they wouldn’t ‘pop out’ later.

The grind was called ‘salt and pepper’. I prefer what our friend Mark Doner called it, ‘the way the sand looks right after the tide goes out’.

Sea of glass.

Who doesn’t love a reflection?

The last few days have been busy insulating the interior bedrooms, laundry and mechanical room walls for sound proofing. This is one of the only jobs I trust myself to do since you really can’t mess it up.

A glimpse of all the hidden things that needed to be installed behind the walls. A lot of detail work for Scottie.

Spring is in the air, which means we are seriously moving forward on the interior of the house! But first a story to keep it all in perspective. Needles to say, it was a shock to receive the below text, from our soon-to-be neighbor, while vacationing in Hawaii:

Immediately, we had visions of vandalism and theft, all taking place under the cover of the dark Alaskan winter, and felt helpless to do anything about it. I said to Scott, “If something bad has happened to the new house, this is going to ruin our vacation!”, to which he wisely replied, “No it won’t. If that had been a tough message about one of our kids/grandkids, a family member or friend – that would change our vacation. But the house, it’s just a thing. Things rust and bust. Plus, that’s why we have builders insurance.” Yep, perspective. Huge thanks to Jesse for checking the house and affirming all was well on the home-front. Later we received this text from the ‘woman’ in question –Now on to the changes since my last blog 4 months ago:

Garage door installed – after months of delays due to recalled parts, the large commercial garage door got put in. What a relief in the middle of a snowy, windy winter! Right now it’s white but will get painted a dark brown/black color eventually.

Electrical – for not being an electrician, Scott has done an amazing job with all the electrical work. It may have taken him a lot longer but trust me, every room has been thoroughly thought-out regarding light fixtures, plug-ins, appliances, speaker wires, security cameras and of course, a power box for his hot tub.

Plumbing and Heating – About a week ago the plumber was able to hook up our back-up heat source and get the in-floor heat circuits going. While we had dreamed of this happening in February, it was for the best that it happened later. Warmer weather meant the concrete heated up fairly quickly (saving us a lot of $$$) and it didn’t get any cracks. And let me just say…having heat in the house has been life changing! Our main heaters should be on-line soon, more on those later.

Insulation – it was always the plan to have the outer walls spray foam insulated but decided to spend the extra and have the ceilings in the main house done as well. Three things that convinced us: 1 – it keeps you warmer in the winter, 2 – it keeps you cooler in the summer, 3 – it keeps more dust out. Oh wait 4 – we didn’t have to touch insulation. This will give the house a possible 6 star rating.

Sorry ladies for the boring post! There will be more interesting ‘design’ posts coming soon.

This stuff may be soybean based but it’s definitely not toxin free when it first goes on.

Thanks for joining us on our journey!

OK, I admit, I may have lied on my last blog post. Because now the Corten Steel (also know as weathering steel) is up on the house and I think it is my favorite siding, not the yellow cedar. But then again, the burned cedar was nailed vertically all around the garage door and it looks amazing, so maybe it’s my favorite.

In the end I guess the way I feel about our siding is the way I feel about my kids…they are all my favorite! The burned cedar is a warm chocolate brown that brings a depth to the house, the yellow cedar has a lot of life in it, and the Corten steel is just so raw and natural (heck, I even like the black metal siding which we used just for cost-saving sake).

It’s been two months since my last post, here’s what’s been happening:

Believe it our not the builders have been doing nothing but siding for the last two months. For about one whole month the weather was extremely cold which slowed down their efficiency. The poor guys couldn’t wear gloves because it messed up the wood so they would hang up a board and then have to warm their fingers by the fire. Good times! The great news is, they should be done with the outside in a few weeks and thankfully the weather has cooperated lately.

Scott has about 80% of the electrical rough-in done. We are very grateful for electrician friends who have given guidance and lended a hand.

In total I sanded/stained or burned/oiled approximately 550 – 575 boards. Tomorrow I hopefully do my last 4…at least until the spring when the roof deck boards need to be done.

The eaves have been spray foamed and the insulation installed in the garage ceiling. Once Scott completes the wiring we will have the walls spray foamed as well. This will give the house a 5 star energy rating.

We burned out!! After 6 months of pushing hard at our jobs and the new house, we took a dive last month. It didn’t help that it was dark, in the single digits and very windy (the house was like walking into a concrete deep freeze). Looking back we would have been better off in the end to play and exercise a little more during those 6 months…all work and no play came back to haunt us. Live and learn!

Thankfully, after a much needed break (and better weather), we are excited once again about this project. Even though it is going a lot slower than we anticipated (our February move in date has been pushed back to May/June), we have been able to take our time on design decisions which will in the end give us a finer product.

Enjoy the pictures. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom and view the results of a potential disaster.

This is the alcove at the back of the house. The window in the guest bathroom.

Back of house.

Scott made the steel hangers that hold up the porch.

Back of house.

Back of house.

Front around garage door.

Front of house. Yes, these will rust to a cool color…rust!

Notice the full winter attire!

This says “This is my last board to sand” what you can’t see is the next word, “HALLELUJAH!!”.

Garage.

This is a spray can that caught on fire when they were warming it in front of a propane heater. Peter grabbed it and threw it outside – disaster diverted!! It did leave a bit of a mess underneath the porch awning and on the cement walkway but nothing that can’t be fixed with some elbow grease. Whew!! Thankful!!

We are putting four very distinctively different sidings on our house but my favorite is the one going up right now (and not just because it has a cool name). When Jesse first mentioned Alaskan Yellow Cedar to us as one siding option, he also pointed out it can be hard to get in Alaska (it is no longer logged in southeast Alaska), and if we did find it, pretty pricey.

Enter Alaska Traffic. That is the company that ships items up from Seattle for our small business. This summer while in Seattle visiting our kids, Scott went to a huge lumberyard and was able to see the yellow cedar firsthand, purchase it and have it barged up. Surprisingly it is not a popular wood in the Northwest, even though it primarily grows from Alaska to Oregon (our wood came from Canada). That meant the cost ended up being half of what it would have been up here – and that’s even with the shipping.

Now these beautiful boards are being carefully hung up by our Craftsmen. I say Craftsmen because as Jesse explained it to me, modern siding is like having cabinets built on the side of your house. It takes precision, detailing, and finishing work finesse to pull it off. Which means it takes time to do it right. Especially when you are dealing with a ‘living’ product like wood which isn’t always perfectly straight and you need a long linear line. Case in point – Peter couldn’t sleep one night because the boards that day didn’t turn out quite as straight as he wanted. So the next day he tore them down and started again. That’s a Craftsmen…and we are so blessed to have them!!

Some other highlights:

Our electricity got hooked up today!! Tomorrow we will turn on the first light.

The concrete walkways were poured – on literally the last day possible before winter.

Propane tank was buried (it will be used for our gas cooktop and as emergency backup heat).

On a personal note: I’m not gonna lie, these last couple weeks have definitely been the most challenging so far with this house build. However we made a vow to never say we were ‘stressed’ over this opportunity but to only say it’s a ‘privilege’. That being said, thankfully our ‘overprivileged’ days have passed and we have new vigor to finish, not just strong, but joyful as well.

Thanks for ready this long post! Enjoy the pictures!

Up and down…up and down…

Love this one!

It was 18 degrees this morning when the guys started working so they made this Swedish fireplace to warm up their hands.

Captain Peter and helper Scott doing their thing.

These concrete guys were going at it!

Notice no mud!

I’ve never been so happy to see a telephone pole.

The only time it will ever read this number…

Yes, I am still sanding and staining…my goal is to be done before the next blog!

When you tell people you are building a modern house they often think of a ‘cold’ black/white, unwelcoming home. While that won’t be the case for our place when we are done, I must admit, we’ve added a whole lot of black the past 3 weeks. But I love it.

So much progress has been made since my last post, I can’t focus on just one thing so here are some recent victories and challenges:

Victories:

The black metal was installed on the main roof, as well as the commercial flat roof on the roof deck (yay – no more puddles on the floor to try and sweep up!)

The right-a-way for the electric service was approved (after almost 4 months of Scott prodding them)

Heaters were delivered

Metal siding is almost done

Concrete walkways/pads get poured tomorrow

Challenges (par for the course on any house build):

The concrete guys discovered there wasn’t enough gravel in front of the garage to pour concrete on…Scott had to rent a backhoe, pay for 2 dump loads of gravel and spend half a day fixing the issue

Our electric company cleared a huge swath for our soon to come power line, so now you can see the top of the house from the road and we can see cars from our roof deck

The commercial garage door had a recalled part issue so now it won’t be installed until near the end of the month. Scott said he may need to temporarily cover the hole with plywood if it comes to that.

Rain and cold. Our poor builders have endured so much rain this summer! Also, winter is coming quickly which makes it a challenge for me to stain the yellow cedar for our remaining siding as it needs warm temps to dry. There is a ton left to do so we may have to get creative…

Thanks for reading – enjoy the pictures!

Commercial roof deck and metal roof.

Gibson Roofing did a great job.

Peter and Scott Z. nailing up the facia’s.

Heaters from North Carolina. Thanks for the delivery Last Mile Transport!

Electricity is complicated haha.

We put Gabe to work for a few hours. Don’t worry, we fed him dinner afterwards.

Under all of the siding is black rain screen or ‘frog skin’.

This is the back (or bluff side) of the house. Whenever we have money most of the metal will be covered with solar panels.

This is supposedly the ‘ugly’ end of the house (you know where you put the cheaper siding because no one sees it) but I think it’s pretty.

First I sand and then I stain…

The leaves tell it all, I better get moving!!

The power line access and view of the road from the roof deck.

Mud!! So much rain…

Ready for the concrete pour tomorrow and not a day too soon!

I captured the gravel train going by. Once the ground freezes it will be done for the winter.